Facebook today revealed that as many as 87 million users, most of them in the US, may have had their information improperly obtained and used by the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. The revelation indicates that nearly twice as many Facebook users may have been directly affected by the ongoing data privacy scandal resulting from the unauthorized sale of the social network’s user data to the third-party company, which was contracted by the Trump campaign to help with election ad targeting. Initial reports from The New York Times and The Guardian put the figure at as many as 50 million users.
Facebook revealed the information at the bottom of a blog post penned by chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, who is among the highest ranking executives at the company behind CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The post outlines plans to restrict the use of its many application programming interfaces, or APIs, that allow developers to plug into the service and extract user data from it. The changes are sweeping, and they come as part of a multistep effort from Facebook these past two weeks to repair its image with politicians and the public, assuage critics condemning the company’s privacy track record, and crack down on the misuse of its platform by third-party companies and foreign governments.
Starting today, Facebook says it will no longer allow developers to use the Events API to access the guest list or event wall of a concert, gathering, or similarly scheduled event on Facebook. “Only apps we approve that agree to strict requirements will be allowed to use the Events API,” writes Schroepfer. Facebook is also requiring third-party app developers who use the Groups API to get approval from Facebook and a group administrator “to ensure they benefit the group” with whatever product or service is accessing the group list and its members’ data. “Apps will no longer be able to access the member list of a group. And we’re also removing personal information, such as names and profile photos, attached to posts or comments that approved apps can access,” writes Schroepfer.
Facebook is also limiting the use of the Pages API by requiring all future access to the entire access layer be approved by the company. Prior to the change, any app could use the Pages API to read posts or comments from any public-facing Facebook page. Facebook is also building on its restrictions to Facebook Login, announced initially two weeks ago in the immediate aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica revelations.
Beyond cutting off app access after a three-month period of user inactivity, Facebook is also no longer letting apps ask for personal data like religious views, political affiliation, relationship status, custom friends list, education and work history, and activity on fitness, book reading, music listening, news reading, video watching, and game playing. “In the next week, we will remove a developer’s ability to request data people shared with them if it appears they have not used the app in the last three months,” Schroepfer writes, which clarifies when the company’s prior policy change will take effect.
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